Some games don’t get the credit they deserve, especially in the music department. Sometimes a really bad game can have an awesome theme thrown in somewhere in the middle that you’ll be humming for hours, even after you’ve cast aside the horrible taste of the game. I’m just going to take a moment here (and hopefully in the future) to acknowledge some of the redheaded step-children of the gaming music world.
The Donkey Kong Country series is famous for its exploration, teamwork, and awesome platforming, but when it comes to music, it usually only tops internet lists because of that horrible DK rap on the N64. However, the original Donkey Kong Country on the SNES has one of my all-time favorite game songs - Gangplank Galleon. The transition from sea-shanty to up-tempo action music is awesome, and both parts of the song are really catchy. Check it out at the vid:
You’ve got to hand it to the marketing geniuses at Nintendo. Back when they were running the world, they had their hands in everything from cereal to movies (like the Wizard, a feature-length commercial). Their influence was also felt in that most sacred of periods - the Saturday morning cartoon. If you grew up in the 80s, you’ve seen Captain Lou Albano sporting the Mario costume and Link spouting “Excuuuuuuuuuu….uuuuuse me, Princess.” Those guys had their own series (technically, Link just had a series of cartoons piggybacking off of Mario) because they were A-listers, but Nintendo, not content to let their B-listers avoid promotion, slapped them all together, threw in a spunky teen, and created Captain N: The Game Master. I have fond memories of this show, but will it still hold up once I removed the rose-tints?
Some games don’t get the credit they deserve, especially in the music department. Sometimes a really bad game can have an awesome theme thrown in somewhere in the middle that you’ll be humming for hours, even after you’ve cast aside the horrible taste of the game. I’m just going to take a moment here (and hopefully in the future) to acknowledge some of the redheaded step-children of the gaming music world.
Ok, so we’ve all heard the Mario theme over and over again, played by flutes, pianos, drums, a choir and reenacted by everyone from high schoolers who weren’t even born when the game was released to barnyard animals. Granted, it’s memorable, and iconic, but enough is enough. However, there is one bit of Mario music that I can listen to all day, every day - the ending music to Super Mario Bros. 2. Intricate in its simplicity, a soft ending to a manic game, easily played by anyone, and catchy as hell. This vid comes courtesy of banksta2 on youtube.
Anybody think of any other underappreciated bits of game music?
February is upon us, the shortest month of the year and also the “most romantic.” That’s right, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, so what better way to celebrate the day of love than by talking about shooting things in the face with arrows, battling snakes, demons, and Medusa herself? Those things just scream “I Heart You,” and with that, ladies and gentleman, allow me to present “Kid Icarus” for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Though the Dreamcast isn’t that old, it did spawn a ton of instant classic games. Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue, and Soul Caliber were all spectacular games for their times and remain so today. But there was only one game that let you live out your childhood fantasy. You know the fantasy I’m talking about…the one where you put some eggs in a tank, kill a squid and watch as those eggs explode from inside the squid carcass talking and had human faces and would carry on whole conversations with you before escaping to freedom. Really? I’m the only one? Come on, I’m not the only one who had that fantasy. Anyway, for those of you noncomformists who didn’t have that particular dream, Seaman for the Sega Dreamcast was still awesome. I don’t think there’s enough meat here for a full blown review, but I just want to acknowledge this game for trying to do something different and actually incorporating meaningful voice interaction. It was nice being able to use a microphone and not have to deal with 12 year olds telling me to go back to Africa.
For those unenlightened, here’s a clip of the game, courtesy of youtube user benstylus. It’s short, but..umm..weird?
Every take notice of a character that just kinda stands out? One who’s unassuming nature makes him more conspicuous? Maybe it’s just me, but I’m kinda weird about recognizing things that don’t seem to click, so when I started the Unsolved NPC Mysteries feature here at Homestyle, there were two NPCs that I knew I had to talk about. The first was Error, but the second is this guy:
Not to brag, but I think I’m a pretty decent Mario Kart player, but that love of the game didn’t really kick off until Mario Kart 64. Something about the original just didn’t click for me, but the 3rd dimension granted by the harnessing of 64 BITS OF POWER really made the game work. Along with the pros of having cool new characters like Wario playable, who is a douche in his own right, but a likable one, came the bad, vile douchiness of this thing:
Let’s face it - 80s nostalgia is at a fever-pitch. Anything that was remotely popular in the 80s is getting a release on DVD or a reimagining/update movie or TV series. Look no further than the success of Transformers and the impending release of GI Joe for evidence of that on the big screen. These adaptations often fail when it comes to rekindling why people loved them to begin with, which brings me to the Knight Rider TV series currently airing. Has anyone seen this thing? Talk about ‘ouch.’ But that got me reminiscing about the original series and its inevitable game adaptation, Knight Rider for the NES.
Every once in a while, a gaming company did something out of the ordinary. They took the standard “white words on a black background” Game Over screen and used it to add to the game experience. We here at Homestyle want to celebrate that creativity by having a quick glimpse at these different Game Overs in what we like to call Friday Finishers.
This one is kind of a shout-out to the current economic crisis:
Really, why didn’t he quit sooner? He’s got the worst paper route on the planet. The lawn jockeys are even coming after the poor kid. He’s better off, anyway. Says right there that he stopped a thief. Perhaps a run at law enforcement is in his future.
I also just want to point out that, apparently, something is a rough job, but….I couldn’t really think of a way to finish that sentence - it’s just a rough job.
